Guitar Exercises – Horizontal Fretboard Movement Part 3, Skipping Positions

This post in the series on horizontal fretboard movement with scales shows some exercises that skip over positions to train your fingers to make larger jumps up and down the guitar neck. This kind of movement will give you a new dimension to develop solos and improvisations.

 

So far in this series we’ve seen exercises that use use four-note groups from the major and minor pentatonic scales to play licks that move horizontally up and down the strings. Part 1 showed some exercises on minor pentatonic scales. Part 2 worked through some major pentatonic positions. In this part we’re going to work on some exercises that get us making larger jumps up and down the fretboard.

 

Exercise 1 – E Minor Pentatonic

This exercise walks up and down the E minor pentatonic on the fourth and fifth strings. We start with a four-note box with two open notes, then skip over a position to play a four-note box at the 5th and 7th frets. Then you drop down to fill in the position you skipped over between the 2nd and 5th frets.

 

This pattern of skipping over a position and then going back to it is repeated throughout the exercise. Focus on transitioning smoothly and accurately into the new position ready to play its four-notes. Use alternate picking throughout.

Exercise 2 – C Major Pentatonic

This exercise on a C major pentatonic scale follows the same principle as the first one. Each time you move up the fretboard (or down, on the descending part) you skip over a position. Once you get the hang of these large jumps you can quickly move up and down the fretboard to play licks in new registers.

When you have completed these two exercises you can go further by extending them to other pairs of strings and to other keys. You can also skip over two or more positions as you ascend or descend the guitar neck.

 

We’ll wrap up this series with a final part that integrates the skills you learn in these exercises into a complete piece. Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to be notified of the next part.

Guitar Chords – 6th Chords

This guitar chord lesson for intermediate players introduces sixth chords, shows you some fingerings to play them with and gives you an example progression to practice.

 

What is a Sixth Chord?

A 6th chord, also known as add6, is a chord built from a basic major or minor chord with a sixth scale degree added. The note formula is root, major or minor 3rd, 5th, 6th.

 

Sixth Chord Fingerings

The two chord diagrams below show a moveable fingering for the major and minor sixth chords. The root note for both is on the sixth string.

 

Both use four fingers and can be quite tricky, especially the major shape, so stick with it if it doesn’t come to you easily at first. Practice fingering both shapes up and down the fretboard using the fingers shown by the numbers on the diagrams.

Alternative fingerings for the major and minor 6th chords are shown by the diagrams below. Both these fingerings can be moved up and down the guitar neck - the root note occurs on both the first and fourth strings.

6th Chord Example

Here's an example progression from a rock song that uses major and minor 6th chords to create a nice walk down on the fourth string. The example is in Em and the chords are Am6 - G6 - F#m6 – Em. The progression can be transposed to any key using the chord formula: iv6 - bIII6 - ii6 – i.

Blues Guitar Licks – Adding Major 3rds to the Blues Scale

The other week I wrote a lesson that showed you how to use the major 3rd note with the minor pentatonic scale in your blues guitar licks. I came across this video lesson on that topic that I thought you might enjoy to see the ideas in that lesson in action.

 

In this video you’ll see some of the same positions for the major third note in and around the minor pentatonic blues scale and get ideas for using it in blues licks.

 

 

For more information…

• Click here to visit GuitarJamz for more blues guitar tips and lessons (affiliate link).
• Read my review of GuitarJamz membership.
• Read my lesson on Blues Guitar Licks With Major Thirds.

Guitar Exercises - More Scale Position Shifts

Here’s a follow up to last week’s post of exercises to build skill moving horizontally along the guitar neck between pentatonic scale box positions. The previous post contained exercises to shift between minor pentatonic positions, this set of exercises will add some major pentatonic scales for you to work on.

 

The major pentatonic scale uses the 1st, 2nd, major 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of the major scale and is frequently used in blues and rock styles. Let’s get started with a C major pentatonic scale on the 1st and 2nd strings.

 

C Major Pentatonic on 1st and 2nd Strings

Use alternate picking for this one and watch out for the change of strings to begin the descent of the scale. Play each series of four eighth notes in the same position. Shift your hand up to play the first note of the next series with the index finger on the 2nd string.

A Major Pentatonic on 2nd and 3rd Strings

For this exercise on the 2nd and 3rd strings we’ll work through A major pentatonic. The pattern on this pair of strings is different from the others so pay attention.

Remember to practise each lesson slowly and focus on clean and precise shifts from one position to the next. If you are familiar with your pentatonic scales then you can try taking these patterns and applying them on other pairs of strings and in other keys.

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to be informed of more exercises in this series.

Guitar Exercises – Pentatonic Position Shifts

Here are some exercises that will help build your proficiency shifting up and down the neck between scale positions. When you learn to move easily up and down the guitar’s neck you give yourself a new dimension to develop solos and improvisations.

 

E Minor Pentatonic Scale on 1st and 2nd Strings

In this first exercise you’re going to walk up the neck and back down again on the first and second strings using four-note groups from the E minor pentatonic scale. Use your third or fourth finger for the notes on the second string and each time the note on that string changes slide it up to the new position. Going down, use the same finger and slide down. Use alternate picking for this exercise, you can start on either a down or an up stroke (or even do both).

D Minor Pentatonic Scale on 3rd and 4th Strings

Here’s another variant, this time using D minor pentatonic. This time we’re going to explore a different fingering to shift up the neck. Each time you complete one four-note box with a note on the 3rd string shift your hand up and play the next note on the 4th string with your first finger. Again, use alternate picking throughout.

A Minor Pentatonic Scale on 2nd and 3rd Strings

Notice in this exercise on the 2nd and 3rd strings that the four-note boxes have different shapes because the guitar is tuned to a major third between these strings instead of a fourth elsewhere. You can use either of the previous techniques – or both – to shift up or down between positions.

When you learn to move horizontally along the neck you will free yourself from the slavery of single position licks, and you can play intervals and lines that are impossible or inconvenient in a single position.

 

Work through all these exercises slowly and focus on clean and precise shifts from one position to the next. It’s also a good idea to call out the note names or scale degrees as you play each note; this will help you keep track of where you are in the scale. Try to visualize, too, each of the five pentatonic minor scale positions as you pass through them.

 

I’ll be developing these exercises further in the coming weeks. Don’t forget to subscribe to the feed (it’s free) using the link below if you’d like to follow along.

Riffstation - Say Goodbye to Tab Searching?

Do you often spend time searching the Internet for chords or tab of the songs you want to play on your guitar?
Do you get frustrated when you find incomplete or inaccurate tabs, or when you don’t find any tabs at all?
Of course, you can buy official tabs, but again this can be time consuming and it’s not always easy to find a good arrangement. For example, unless the artist is very well known then there is little chance of finding a published tab book. Other times, you can find a tab book, but have to buy a whole book when you want only one song.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a friendly assistant who you could just ask for those chords whenever you have a piece of music you’d like to learn to play on your guitar? You might be lucky enough to know someone willing to do this for you. But if you don’t, then maybe Riffstation, a new software program for your PC, could be what you’re looking for.

Introducing Riffstation

Riffstation is a program for guitar players that offers features to transcribe a song’s chords, extract or suppress solo parts to learn them or jam along with the rest of the track, and help you assemble recorded riffs to build new ones.

I recently gave its chord finding features a try using the free 30 day trial version available from the Riffstation.com web site.

Riffstation Chord Finder

One of the most interesting features of Riffstation is that it proposes to identify the chords in an audio file.  Using the software to find a song’s chords is very easy. There a just a few simple steps: browse to open the audio file you want to analyse, Riffstation imports the audio, draws a waveform, and finally analyses the audio to identify the chords which it displays as “bubbles” below the waveform (see the screenshot to the right).
You can play along with the song and see the chord changes in real time in the Chord Viewer in the middle area of the screen below the waveforms. While the song is playing this view shows you the current chord’s name and a fretboard diagram. It also shows you the next chord in the song with a countdown timer to the chord change. Finally, you can alter the key or tempo of the song as it is played to help you practice.

I found it a little unfortunate that the playback cursor doesn’t move through the chord “bubbles” in time. There is an offset caused by the zoom controls at the left end of the chord line. I think this would be more intuitive than following the countdown in the middle area.

Update: Dan Barry, one of Riffstation's developers got in touch with some information on this, "We're going to implement some of the suggestions you had such as highlighting the current chord to play in the chord strip. We will also be fixing some bugs which are still present in the trial version before paid release."
There’s no cursor in the the chord line during playback.

Is Riffstation Good at Transcribing Song Chords?

So far I’ve tested Riffstation in its default automatic mode with a number of songs that I already have the chords for. The input files were 320kbps MP3 files that were either downloaded from Amazon or ripped from CD.

The documentation states that automatic mode only finds major, minor and 7th chords. Riffstation did a pretty good job of identifying the basic major and minor chords for simple songs. It even performed quite well on more complex songs with extended or altered chords such as sus or 6 chords, recognizing the base chord name nearly all the time.

For all of the three or four chord pop/rock songs I fed it Riffstation got the chords right. For songs with more complex chords it was a little less accurate but it still gives you a good starting point. There are some tools that allow you to tune the chord analysis and manually correct chords too. The semi-automatic analysis supports major and minor 7, sus2 and sus4 chords in addition to major, minor and 7th chords.

Summary

Overall the software performed very well and could be a very useful tool if you want to learn to play pop and rock songs. For more complex songs it will give you a very good starting point but you’ll still have some work to do to transcribe the details and chord types the software doesn’t support.

At €39.99 for the full version Riffstation has plenty of interesting features for guitar players. You can learn more and download the free trial version for yourself at the Riffstation web site. I’ll be reviewing more of its features in future posts, be sure to subscribe to the feed using the link below so you don’t miss them.

Blues Guitar Licks With Major Thirds

Here are some example blues guitar licks that will show you how to incorporate the major third of the current chord into the first position of the minor pentatonic scale.

When you use the major third of each chord in the blues progression you really make that chord stand out. You'll get lots of points at the jam session as someone who really knows where they're at. Provided you use the thirds in the right places, of course...

In the example licks we're going to work in the key of G major, so our I, IV and V chords will be G7, C7 and D7 respectively. Each lick is going to target the major third of the current chord. This note is not part of the minor pentatonic scale, but is easily found within the position.

Major Third Target Notes

The major third target notes of each chord around the first minor pentatonic position are shown in the fretboard diagram below.

 

• On the I chord - G7 - target the major thirds shown by green dots: fifth string 2nd fret, third string 4th fret, first string 7th fret.
• On the IV chord - C7 - target the major thirds shown by blue dots: fourth string 2nd fret, second string 5th fret.
• On the V chord - D7 - target the major thirds shown by orange dots: fourth string 4th fret, second string 7th fret.

 

The extra notes for the I and IV chord are the major 3rd and the 6th of the I chord. They are part of a scale called the myxolidian scale, but you don't have to worry about that fancy name. I find it's much simpler to simply think of them as extra notes added around the minor pentatonic position.

 

Licks on the I Chord

Here’s an example lick on the I chord that plays around the 3rd at the fourth fret of the 3rd string. An easy way to identify this note is to think of the G7 bar chord at the third fret.

This next lick uses the 3rd at the second fret of the fifth string. The current chord is also played as part of the lick to further underline it.

Licks on the IV Chord

Here is a lick using the major third of the C7 chord at the fifth fret of the second string.

The second C7 chord lick incorporates some chord hits in the second measure. These are followed by a short series of notes that leads back into the I chord, ending on its root note.

Licks on the V Chord

The following two examples on the V chord make use of some playing effects with the major 3rd notes. In the first example below, the b7 of the scale box is bent up a half step to the D7 chord’s major third. You can slide up to the 7th fret of the third string with your third (ring) finger and perform the bend on the string below with your second finger.

In this final lick the major third of the D7 chord is played as a trill – a rapid alternation between the two notes using hammer-ons and pull-offs.

These licks show some examples of how to use the major third of the current chord in licks based on the first minor pentatonic box. The major 3rd really makes the sound of the chord stand out in your playing. When you practice with it you will learn to listen and follow the progression better because if you hit these notes on the wrong chord they will sound odd.

Have fun practicing these licks and making up more of your own with the major third.

Did You Practice Guitar Today?

Yesterday was New Year's Day, the first day of 2012. Did you practice or play your guitar? I did. I hope you did too.

 

Almost half the responses so far to the question What Will You Do to Play Better Guitar in 2012 are "Really take time for that practice session every day." But how many actually practiced on the 1st of January?

 

But I only missed one day…

"How does a project get to be a year late? ... One day at a time." -- Fred Brooks

 

In his book The Mythical Man Month, Fred Brooks told about his experience managing the IBM OS/360 project. Fred Brooks' observed that a very large delay in a project arises from a number of small and seemingly insignificant slippages that occur every day.

 

This same observation applies to your guitar projects. It might not seem like a big deal to miss those twenty minutes of practice today. But each day you skip those seemingly insignificant minutes adds to the delay that could prevent you from reaching your guitar goals for the year.

So, if you didn't practice on the 1st January, be sure to put that right today. If you keep your attention on that little task of practicing today, every day throughout this year, you can be sure you'll have made significant progress in your guitar projects by next December.

 

How will you practice on more days?

What do you need to change in your daily routine to make that practice session happen, without fail, every day?

 

The thing that has worked best for me is to fix a regular time when I'm sure I can practice, undisturbed by other events. Pick a time that suits you and let everybody know about it. Making your commitment public boosts your motivation to stick to it.

 

My favourite time for this kind of activity that I really want to happen every day is first thing in the morning. It's quite easy to get up half an hour earlier and get to work while I'm still fresh and the day's events won't interfere.

 

What about you?

What techniques work best at helping you ensure you get in daily guitar practice? I'd love to hear about them, so please use the comment link below to share them with us.

 

Photo by Rob Ellis.